Slide system and slide assembly for a drawer and drawer assembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing slide systems for aircraft cabin drawers often result in the exposure of slide components when the drawer is fully extended, leading to oscillation due to low moment of inertia, causing desynchronized sliding movements.
Innovation Solution
A slide system design that includes an outer slide with a longitudinal channel, a sliding member, a casing element to encase the sliding member, and a pinion system for synchronized movement, ensuring the slide components remain concealed and preventing oscillation by synchronizing the translational movements of the drawer's side walls.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the drawer is fully extended to provide access to contents, then the sliding members become visible on both sides of the drawer, but this exposes the slide system which is aesthetically undesirable
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the sliding member from full visibility by introducing a casing element that selectively conceals it. The casing element is attached to the drawer and positioned to hide the sliding member during extended positions, while allowing the drawer to remain fully accessible for content retrieval.
2Ease of operation
If the drawer is fully extended, then access to contents is maximized, but the drawer may oscillate in a transversal direction due to low moment of inertia of the slides
Solution Approach 1:
The invention applies counterbalancing forces through springs arranged to oppose the oscillation tendency of the drawer. When the drawer is extended, the springs generate restoring forces that counteract the low moment of inertia effects, preventing transversal oscillation and maintaining drawer stability during content access.
3Shape
If the sliding member is made visible when drawer is extended, then the slide system structure is exposed, but this leads to desynchronized slides due to oscillation
Solution Approach 1:
The invention removes the sliding member from the visible domain by using the casing element to conceal it during drawer extension. This prevents the visual exposure of desynchronized slide positions while the casing itself remains stable due to the counterbalancing spring mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The springs provide counterbalancing forces that synchronize the sliding movements by opposing oscillation. This ensures that both sides of the drawer move in unison, maintaining reliability of synchronized operation even when fully extended.
Data Source
AI summary
A slide system for slidably opening and closing a drawer is provided. The slide system includes an outer slide for mounting the slide system on a side wall of an enclosure, comprising a longitudinal slide outer channel, a sliding member, configured to be mounted on a side wall of the drawer, slidably movable within said slide outer channel. The outer slide includes a fixing part for attachment of the outer slide on the side wall of the enclosure, a sliding part comprising said slide outer channel, and an intermediate part, extending from said fixing part to said sliding part. The fixing part, the intermediate part and the sliding part define a groove extending upwardly from said intermediate part. The slide system comprises a casing element for encasing the sliding member by extending vertically from an upper portion the side wall of the drawer towards the intermediate part of the outer slide and being at least partly received within the groove.